I’ve never seen anything quite like this: an hour-long exploration through circus skills of queer intimacy and Islam, partying and praying, drugs and debauchery.
Winner of the Summerhall Lustram Award 2022, a well-groomed Sadiq Ali emerges from a tight-wrapped cocoon of tradition and religion to explore forbidden—‘haram’—love with their dating app match: the hirsute and dishevelled hedonist Hauk Pattison.
Ali’s innovative debut work presents the internal struggles of the circus artist growing up realising their sexuality was at odds with Muslim teachings, the struggles that evoked and the need to numb the overwhelming confusion, self-loathing and shame.
Pattison leads Ali on a journey of excess: coy hand-holding gives way to rampant, exploratory sex; a solitary sip of vodka to bucketfuls of cocaine and chemsex; and devout obedience to the call to prayer to gay club partying abandon.
But centre-stage is the amazing agility of the performers whose command of the dual Chinese poles is breathtaking. Solo or pas de deux, precision is key and the duo’s choreography and athleticism is quite remarkable.
Jamie Heseltine's lighting is generally gloomy and appositely atmospheric, while Guy Veale's sound design incorporates original compositions by Kester Hynds alongside snippets of known favourites such as "Stand By Me". Fans, plastic and shredded paper are used to great effect in contrast to pedestrian cheese plant, dingy sofa and general bedsit detritus.
Not for the faint-hearted or easily offended, a fascinating study of losing inhibitions, finding oneself and paying the price.